Inspiration
by akeso98
Summary: Elsanna AU, fluffy/angsty story where Elsa and Anna go to the same High School. It's been done before, but then again, what hasn't been done? They're the same age and they're NOT sisters. Rated M for language and uh... other things... Just to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

**I had fun writing this. I came up with the idea randomly in class, so. Cheers. **

"I have literally no idea what I'm doing," Anna muttered as she stared blankly at the empty canvas in front of her. A small chuckle came from the other side of the small bedroom.

"Oh c'mon, there has to be _something_ that inspires you! Anything?" Elsa inquired from her perch on the bed.

Anna carefully set the purple paint laden brush on the painting pad and turned to face Elsa, biting her lip.

_Oh my god, _please _not with the lip biting._

"You really have nothing? I don't know, something makes you want to… uh… live and be happy or something?"

Anna just shook her head. "Well, I mean, I like living, y'know, but like, I just don't see my purpose in life." Anna walked over and slumped herself onto Elsa's queen sized bed, face up. Elsa casually fell down next to her.

Together they lied there in a peaceful silence.

Elsa, however, could practically hear the gears whirring in Anna's head.

"So what's _your_ inspiration?" Anna asked suddenly, turning her head to look at Elsa.

The question had caught her off guard.

"M-my inspiration?"

"Yeah!" Anna nodded eagerly. "I mean, a successful person like you ought to have one, right?"

_Did she just call me… successful?_

"What do you mean?" Elsa asked, genuinely innocent.

"Oh ha ha," Anna rolled her eyes. "Captain of the varsity Ski team, class president, A plus pluses in literally every class you've ever taken, not to mention you're pretty much the _Queen_ of the school. Your parents are super rich and well known, although that isn't really anything you've done. Not that that's bad or anything that they're super rich but like, I don't know, my mom works at a convenience store down the block and my dad hasn't been seen for like three years or something crazy like that."

She was rambling at this point, but Elsa made no moves to stop her as she got up and paced around the cramped bedroom.

"I mean, who _doesn't_ like you? Nobody. Nobody doesn't like you. And here I am, Barely keeping a B average. I tried out for the swim team earlier this year; yeah I didn't make it on the team. Not even junior varsity or something. They just told me flat out that I wasn't good enough. My only friend is you, which, don't get me wrong, I'm soooo thankful for, but like… you're friends with _everybody_. I guess what I'm getting at is just… you're so much _better_ than me. I don't see how you can even hang around me. I'm nothing compared to you."

Anna's sudden rant caught Elsa _completely _off guard.

She was speechless. She was opening her mouth to say something when Anna cut her off.

"Y'know what? I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that. I guess I'm just a little stressed. I'm sure it isn't a walk in the park for you. That was… impolite of me. You invite me over and here I am complaining to you and wow jeez now I'm just rambling. I'm going to stop now." The redhead was blushing insanely with a tentative smile on her face. She was toying with one of her long braids and shuffling her feet awkwardly.

_Does she know that she's literally the cutest thing I think I've ever seen? And I mean cute in a sisterly sort of way. Right? But wait, sisters don't get heart flutters over each other, right?_

"Um…" Elsa managed.

"Ooookay, I've just ruined things. Aug I shouldn't have even opened my mouth, it always gets me in trouble. Y'know what? I'm just… gonna go…" Anna made a movement to leave, but Elsa sprung out of the bed as fast as lighting.

"No!"

Anna jumped backwards, screaming a little.

"Sorry, I mean," Elsa took a deep breath. "Please stay? We can watch a movie or something. I don't know. I have tons of movies. After what you just said I want nothing more than to just spend some more time with you," she gave the best encouraging smile she could muster.

"Are you sure?"

Elsa nodded, smiling ever more brightly. "And also," she took one of Anna's hands in hers. "To be quite honest, I don't have an inspiration of any sorts. Although these past couple of weeks, one's been creeping up on me." Elsa didn't mean to word her sentence so… flirtatiously.

"What?" Anna asked, suddenly confused.

"Uh," Elsa cleared her throat. "I'm working on a painting. It's not finished yet."

"Well dur, why would you work on something that's already finished," Anna joked.

Elsa laughed along with her.

"So what do you think is your new inspiration?"

"Oh," Elsa gasped a little, red rushing to her cheeks. "Oh it's nothing that would interest you."

"Oh… well okay! Anyways, what kinds of movies do you have?" Anna asked, starting towards the bedroom door.

"Oh, well actually I don't really have a huge variety. It's mostly just Disney stuff."

"Oh I _love_ Disney stuff! What do you have?"

"Hm… I have Mulan, Monsters Inc., Brave… Oh and I also have the original Jurassic Park, if you—"

"Jurassic Park, yes!" Anna's eyes lit up. She did a little dance and stopped when she noticed Elsa staring at her with a peculiar look on her face.

"Uh… sorry…"

Elsa burst out laughing, causing Anna to stick her lower lip out in a pout.

"Oh my god, you are like the most upbeat person I've ever known!"

"Hey!" Anna put her hands on her hips. "I try to make it a habit to be happy. Happiness is contagious, you know. Now c'mon! I wanna watch some stupid little kids get people killed!"

Without warning, the redhead latched their hands together and dragged Elsa down the stairs and into the living room. She practically threw Elsa down onto the couch and ran over to the cabinet nearby the large, flat screen television.

Elsa stifled a chuckle at the redhead's enthusiasm.

"In all due respect, but I think I'd know where to find the movie more than you would."

"Ta-da!" Anna exclaimed. She held the Jurassic Park disc aloft, brandishing it in Elsa's face like a trophy.

"Wha…" Elsa muttered dumbfoundedly.

Anna shoved the disc into the player, sprinted over to the other side of the room, punched the light switch to make it turn off, grabbed a blanket that was lying on the farthest armrest from Elsa and threw herself next to Elsa while also covering them with the woolen warmth.

Elsa sat there, still wondering how Anna had managed to do all of that in so little time. It was almost like Anna had lived here before.

"Shocked?" Anna asked slyly. "I'll have you know, I'm a movie night _expert_." She tapped Elsa's nose with her pointer finger.

"I just… I don't… what?" Elsa was struggling for words, but eventually a smile found its way onto her confused face. "How did you know…?"

"Oh please, anyone who is anyone sorts their movies by how much you watch them. And since you don't seem like a _huge_ dinosaur person, yours was behind all of the other ones," she beamed.

"I mean… I didn't do that on purpose at all, but I guess you're right…"

_Is this girl a fucking psychic? Oh god… she's sitting next to me. She's practically on _top _of me. _

The thought of Anna being on top of her sent Elsa into panic mode.

_Oh god she's so close and we're watching a movie. Wait what if she falls asleep? No, she won't fall asleep. She's too into dinosaurs, right? But what if she does? What's stopping me from -_

"You okay Elsa?" Anna asked in a small voice, worry knitting her eyebrows together. "You seem… distant."

"Oh, no. It's just that…" _I think I've found my new inspiration. _

"It's just what?"

_It's you._

"Nothing," Elsa smiled. "I'm just glad you're my friend."

Anna beamed even brighter. "Really? I mean, I know that with my spazzy nature I can get sort of annoying – and some people tell me I'm annoying _all_ the time – so like it's nice to have someone that doesn't constantly tell me to piss off or go do something else or go—"

While Anna was rambling, Elsa was inching closer and closer. Anna didn't notice until she could feel Elsa's warm breath dancing on her lips.

_Oh god how did we get so close!? Did I do this? I didn't even notice. I'm probably scaring her. _

Elsa was starting to back off when Anna cupped her face with her hands and smashed her lips onto Elsa's.

At first it was aggressive, but after a moment it was more passionate.

Seconds passed. Minutes. Hours. Elsa had forgotten time itself. All she could feel or think about was that Anna was so close to her. The taste of her lips was amazing. It was like nothing she'd ever experienced before. She'd kissed boys before, but this was different. This was better. She grabbed one of Anna's hands with one of hers and rested the other one on her hip.

The girl she'd been thinking about ever since she first saw her in class that first day was _kissing_ her.

_Well that solves my 'is she even into girls' problem._

Finally they broke apart, both extremely red in the face.

"Um…" Anna cleared her throat. "I'm sorry. That was… yeah…" Anna scooted a little farther away from Elsa.

_Oh no, she's scared!_

"What are you sorry for?" Elsa said, trying her best to give an encouraging smile.

Anna gulped.

"I didn't know if you um… if you were… into that kind of stuff before I did it."

Elsa scooted a little towards Anna.

"I was asking myself the same thing about you ever since I met you."

Anna gave her a tentative smile. She was still blushing and the tips of her ears were crimson red. "So… do you still wanna watch the movie?"

"Absolutely."

The two of them curled up together under a blanket and hit the play button.

Elsa's eyes fluttered open.

The comfortable warmth that she had fell asleep wrapping herself around was missing and the movie was stuck looping the main menu over and over again.

_Shit I fell asleep._

She glanced at her blue watch with snowflake patterns etched on it.

_12:43? Why didn't she wake me before she left!_

Elsa scrambled out from under the blanket and into the entry way.

"Anna?" she called.

No reply.

_She didn't even say goodbye… Did I scare her too much last night? Then again, she sort of made the first move. I was backing away! But what if she felt pressured into it. Oh god, I don't want her being scared of me. I didn't mean to, Anna!_

She proceeded up the stairs and towards her bedroom. She flung open the door and sure enough, it was empty. She was about to faceplant onto her bed when something caught her eye.

The once blank painting canvas was now filled with a beautiful depiction of a snowflake. Its intricate patterns and weaves of ice were nothing like Elsa had ever seen before. It was the most realistic painting she'd ever laid eyes on. It was like a photograph, but _better. _

She took a sharp intake of breath when she noticed the writing directly under the snowflake, written in bold cursive with a dark shade of blue.

_You are my inspiration._

**This is supposed to be a one shot, but if you think I should write a story to go with it, let me know. **

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Why not?**

_**Monday**_

"You want _me_ to go with you?" Anna asked, shocked.

Elsa nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah, sure! It'll be fun!"

"A whole weekend?"

"Free! VIP Access!"

"Really?"

Elsa nodded again, rolling her eyes. She reached out and grabbed one of Anna's hands, only to find that it was quivering.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Um… yeah!" Anna withdrew her hand and laughed nervously. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You're shaking like it's freezing in here."

_Something's wrong._

"I'm fine, I promise," Anna said, giving a bright smile.

Together they stood in silence in the empty school hallway.

"Hm… alright," Elsa sighed. "By the way, I saw your painting."

"That's good, that was the plan," Anna said, red jumping to her cheeks as she grinned insanely.

"So… about the trip to the mountain?" Elsa's shy smile went unnoticed by Anna, who was staring at the ground.

After what seemed like an eternity, Anna returned her gaze to the taller girl.

"Yeah, sure! Of course!"

_She's still shaking_.

Elsa put the thought at the back of her mind and put on the brightest smile possible.

"Yay!"

Anna jumped at the outburst.

_Jesus, she's jumpy._

The bell signaling the start of class rang, startling both girls.

"Oh, I gotta go," Anna murmured. She gave Elsa a brief hug and sprinted down the long corridor, leaving Elsa to sit in boredom during her free period.

_**Friday Evening**_

The snow-tipped trees danced in the golden sunset light as Elsa gazed out the car window. The forest vegetation whisked by.

"Elsa? You're going to burn holes into that window," Anna said, prodding the platinum blonde.

Elsa jumped and turned her head towards Anna.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. Sometimes I just get distracted by the sheer beauty of this place." She returned her icy stare to the window.

Anna sighed. "This is sooo boring. How do people sit in cars for so long?"

Elsa's father chuckled from the driver's seat. "You should try enjoying the scenery. It helps to pass the time."

Anna sighed again and took a moment to look through her own window. She found herself staring at a blank, rocky cliff-side.

"There's nothing there."

"Patience is key, Ms. Delle." He flashed her a smile through the rearview mirror.

Anna sighed for the third time and again looked out the window. She was staring at the dirt colored rock when suddenly the car turned around a bend and Anna's cliff wall transformed into an ethereal landscape.

Her voice – and her breath – left her as she stared in awe through the window dusted with snowflakes.

She was looking at a vast dip between the four mountains, North, South, East, and West. It was comparable to a beautiful oasis in the center of a desert, unfathomable in size. There, on the opposite mountain glistened a great frozen waterfall. It split into three smaller ones about halfway down.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Elsa whispered into Anna's ear, startling her.

"Yeah, it really is."

"This is probably one of my favorite places on Earth."

"One? What are the others?" Anna asked, curiosity sparkling in her teal eyes.

_Anywhere with you._

"Oh, just other nice, natural places like this," Elsa played it off.

"Oh, okay. I love nature too," Anna beamed, giggled a bit, then turned her attention towards the window again.

_I don't know how much longer I'll be able to put up with her adorableness. _

_**Two Hours Later**_

Elsa heaved yet another heavy duffle bag onto her shoulder and brought it through the front doors of the grand ski lodge. She put it in a pile with the other luggage.

"Oof!"

Elsa turned to see that Anna had somehow gotten her hot pink duffel stuck in the shut double doors.

Elsa watched as she continued to struggle and pull on the unyielding bag. After a moment, she gave up and plopped herself onto the floor where she stuck her bottom lip out in a pout.

Elsa burst out laughing.

"Honestly Anna, how do you manage on your own?" She said through fits of giggles. She walked past Anna and opened the door ever so slightly, causing the ensnared strap to fly free.

"Oh," Anna said simply.

Elsa gave her a look.

"Don't look at me like that," Anna whined, curling into a ball and falling backwards.

"Uh… is everything going okay?" Elsa's father asked, observing the scene with a curious look on his face.

"Oh," Anna sprung up off the ground. "Yep! We're fine, I mean she's fine too, wait, not _fine_ fine, well yes, but she gets that from you! Well I'm not saying that you—"

Elsa put a hand on the now trembling girl's shoulder, a worried look etched upon her face.

"Are you okay?"

_She shaking so bad now._

Anna took a shaky breath.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"No, you're shaking like crazy."

"We're on a freezing mountain, Elsa."

"We're in a warm lodge, Anna."

Anna averted her eyes to the floor.

"I'm going to return to my quarters, if you need me," Mr. Aren stated. "Kai will take your things up."

A silence settled around the two girls.

"Seriously, what's wrong?" Elsa attempted to take one of Anna's trembling hands in hers, but she flinched away at the contact. "Please talk to me?"

_Oh my god. I bet something horrible happened! Wait, what if I did something? Well, she didn't seem to want to go when I asked her a couple days ago or whatever._

Anna shrunk in on herself.

"I just… I-I can't talk about it right now."

"Was it something I did?"

"No, you're fine."

"A-are you sure?"

"Yeah, I promise."

Anna would still not meet Elsa's eyes.

"Hey," Elsa said softly. "You know you can tell me anything, right? And I mean _anything_." She reached out and carefully placed a hand on the trembling girl's shoulder, who didn't flinch away this time. "Whatever it is, know that I'm here for you, and I always will be."

Without warning, Anna enclosed Elsa in a tight hug.

It took Elsa a moment to realize that the smaller girl was crying. Without questioning anything, she hugged her back.

They stayed like this for a couple of moments.

"Elsa?" Anna whimpered, her voice muffled by Elsa's shirt. She looked up into Elsa's eyes, tears swimming in her own.

"What's wrong?"

Elsa could see a million emotions reflected in those teal eyes. Anger, sadness, angst, fear, embarrassment, grief, loneliness, they were all there. That, however couldn't prepare her for what she was about to hear.

"Elsa, my mom is dead."


	3. Chapter 3

Elsa's heart dropped at terminal velocity and crashed into the Earth so hard it might as well have gone straight to Hell.

"Anna, I…"

She couldn't find the words. She could only hold the girl that was now sobbing silently in her arms. Elsa even felt like crying herself.

_How could someone so genuine and so... innocent be subjected to this kind of horror?_

"Anna," Elsa said, barely a whisper. "Anna, what happened?"

At first Elsa thought that she didn't hear her, but she pushed that thought aside when Anna took a step back, freeing herself from Elsa's arms.

"W-well, to be honest, I was kind of expecting it sometime soon."

"What do you mean?" Elsa asked, suddenly alarmed.

"My mom was suffering, Elsa."

She took a second to mull it over.

"Suffering?"

"Yes, suffering."

"How… how so?"

"She had cancer, and I-I knew I should've told you before, b-but I just didn't want to trouble you or anything and I-I'm sorry, I'm s-so sorry, p-please just—"

Anna collapsed into Elsa's arms once again.

_Holy fucking shit I'm so bad at this. What am I supposed to do?_

"H-hey," Elsa got out, taking a strand of Anna's hair in her fingers. "Look, I'm sure she's alright."

"Elsa, she's dead!" Anna broke free from her. "She's dead and it's my fault!"

"What? How in the hell would it be your fault?"

"Y-you didn't let me finish!"

The atmosphere in the room tripled in intensity.

"Remember the day when you asked me to join you on this mountain adventure?"

Elsa nodded.

"And remember how you noticed I was acting a little… skittish?"

Another nod.

"Well, because my mom can't work and I have to go to school which only leaves me working this shitty, part time job at a mini-mart, which, by the way, doesn't pay well, we can't afford proper treatment so I put my mom on pain meds and stuff which her doctor suggested, but he can't do more than that because of course we have to fucking pay him our life savings, which I wouldn't have a problem with, except _we don't have any._

"You see, when I was born, my dad decided that he wasn't going to waste his time with my mom and I. I wasn't planned, Elsa, I wasn't even thought of when it happened. I was just another mistake in another man's life. The only reason I'm around is because my mom's drink was spiked and she trusted the wrong people."

Anna wasn't crying anymore. She was hysteric in anger and frustration, causing Elsa to shrink away from her ever so slightly as Anna paced the length of the entry hall.

"So that's number one on the list of reasons why I think that I'm such a failure, shall I continue?"

Elsa wanted to say no, but something made her listen.

"Anyways, it's my job to pick up my mom's meds from the pharmacy. They don't really do anything about the cancer, but they help with the pain. Apparently the helped a lot, because every time I came home with them my mother practically forgot she was dying. She forgot that there were tumors growing inside her stomach that were slowly killing her.

"And for some reason, that morning before school, I decided that my mom could do without her meds for a day. _WHY WOULD I THINK THAT? _You know, for the past couple of weeks I've been having doubts in my mind. I've been saying things to myself that I'd literally kill myself over, and believe me Elsa, I've been close. I've been so fucking close and the only reason I keep it all inside if for your sake."

_What the hell? What is even going on? Is this… is this a fight? Am I in a fight right now?_

"Anna, what—" Elsa tried to speak.

"_Please_, let me finish."

Elsa took a step back again.

"Don't take this the wrong way Elsa, but you are hella sheltered. You are so fucking pampered and you probably have _no idea_ what it's like to be met with the problems that I've been met with. You probably have _no fucking clue _what it's like to feel helpless or useless or any and all of the above. I'm not mad at you, I'm really not, I'm more mad at myself actually.

"I thought that maybe… maybe things were hopeless. Maybe that it was time that my mom died. Maybe then I could have some peace, maybe then I wouldn't have to wake up at 3 in the morning to feed her more medicine. Now I love my mom. I love her so much and I'm so fucking mad that I let her die. Her blood is on _my _hands. I just… I couldn't take it anymore Elsa. I… I just… I can't."

The silence was almost as loud as Anna's speech.

The fireplace had dimmed greatly as the time passed and all that remained of it were a couple of glowing embers.

_What just happened. I don't- I mean, what the hell? What just- was that… Is this real? Did Anna just say those things or am I dreaming?_

"What the _hell?_" It was all Elsa could manage. Her brain was short-circuiting, trying to process what it had just heard.

Anna couldn't speak anymore. After years and years of keeping her emotions inside, releasing them was catastrophic. She disintegrated into sobs ever again and fell down onto her knees. The anger that she had just released left her with nothing but sadness.

_You're wrong, Anna, I know what helplessness feels like. In fact, it's happening right now. Well, that, and useless, and any and all of the above._


End file.
